BASE LEGAL

The author wanted to know what the firms think about the future of social media as a business tool. When asked about the future of social media the interviewee of company A thinks that the importance of social media is increasing and they will have a significant impact on business in the future. But one needs to be updated, active and ready to adapt to any situation as the environment of social media is always changing, "Overall I think the importance of social media in business is still increasing, all the time some new tools popping up, new channels are popping up all the time and it requires someone to be active and updated. For example, if you go to China you have to able to use different social media as the scenario is different there. I think the importance of social media is increasing not decreasing and the impact social media has is significant.”

The interviewee of company B thinks that social media is a strong medium to gain visibility, the algorithm used in social media allow the firms to express themselves more to the audience compare to the firm's own website which is more personal. She also believes that the firms still have a lot to learn to be benefited from social media, "I think it's all the time, of course, getting more power. I think companies have a lot to learn how to use social media. Social media is getting more powerful, but I still believe more in the influencers like the employees who can better express their ideas."

The CEO of company C have concerns about the future of social media in business, he is afraid that social media does not have a very bright future and if the channels do not come up with some adjustment people might lose their faith in social media. He also does not think that social media can only act as a business platform, he says "there is a big challenge for social media and marketing, there is already traditional media such as television, radio, print and a number of people are getting tired of social media growing."

He is also concerned about the security of social media as there has been a number of scam, manipulation and criminal activity happened in social media. For him, social media has crossed the border and became too personal for an individual's liking. He thinks social media have to come up with some solution to regain the trust of the audience "if the trust is lost than people will go away from social media and the trust is already tumbling". According to him if social media is failed to regain trust than there can be the introduction of new platforms as an alternative to social media. The interviewee of company D thinks that social media has a bright future and the involvement of business in social media will only increase. Although she is not certain that in future the channels of social media which the companies are using right now will be there, the channels might change according to the necessity of the market and environment. She thinks that social media has to evolve with the demand and need of the audience, “I think the future of social media is bright and that the use of it will grow within our field of business. Although the social media channels may change there will always be a need for companies to be present where the customers are.”

Apart from company C other three companies think that social media has good potential to become a strong tool for business in the future where company C is not so certain about it.

For the interviewee of the company C trust is the main issue which social media has to work if they want to become more reliable. The interviewee of company A thinks that the companies need to be active and up to date in social media change strategy

according to the environment where interviewee from company D thinks that the traditional social media channels might change according to the need of the audience.

6 DISCUSSION

The main research questions which were chosen for this thesis was "what is the main purpose of using social media for the startups?” The sub or supporting questions were, “1) which channels are utilized and how much impact social media has on the firms? 2) How much time and resources firms invest and how they plan their activity on social media? 3) What are the challenges of using social media and the future of social media as a business tool?

In the first part of our thesis, the author introduced some theoretical aspects regarding social media and in the later part research method, case study and the data collected from those case study was introduced. Now the author can compare the case studies and find out the answer to the research questions. The author would try to explain and interpret the learnings and findings from this study.

The main research question of this study was, what is the main purpose of using social media for the startups? And the author sees that all the case firms use social media to create brand awareness and have a strong market presence. The firms think that social media is a platform which allows them to reach their clients easily and in an effective manner. One company thinks that social media is important to increase the visibility of their firm while another thinks that it is a good way of showing that they are alive. Company C thinks that social media reminds that they are not a dried out business while company D thinks that social media is good for promoting their products online. So all the firms here use social media to reach the customers and let them feel their presence online. Therefore the author sees that the main role or purpose of using social media for the case firms are creating brand awareness. The second most important purpose of social media as the author identifies is sharing the information, the firms want to share their activities, their situation currently and their plans for the future. The companies want their followers and clients to know if they attend any conference or event and if something important such as new technology or patent they are going have. They think sharing this information in social media is effective rather than just sharing these on their own website. There are other purposes of social media such as communicating with the clients as it is very easy to communicate through social media. Creating and maintaining the networks is another

very significant purpose of social media to the firms. Social media has important roles in each of the case companies, the way of using and planning is different for the firms but one thing is common in all the firms that every firm use social media to generate brand awareness and increasing their presence in the market. Firms also use social media as a medium of communication and sharing information also for promoting their products and firms as well.

According to (Zarrella 2010), there are seven types of social media which were explained in the theoretical part of this study. There were four types of social media activity present in the case firms, Blogging, microblogging (Twitter), social networking sites (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook) and media sharing (Youtube). The author found that the main channels for social media is mostly similar in all firms. All the firms are active in LinkedIn and in Twitter, Company A and D has active Instagram channels where company C is thinking about Instagram as a future channel, only Company B does not have any Instagram activity and has to intention in using Instagram in future as well. Other social media channels are Youtube, Facebook, and Blogs. One of the most certain found out from this study is that each of the company values LinkedIn as their primary or main social media channel. The reason behind choosing LinkedIn is also mostly similar, all the firms see LinkedIn as a more professional channel compare to other social media channel. Company B thinks that LinkedIn is the possible social media channel to create and maintain network and also because of the lack of unnecessary contents it is easier to get output from LinkedIn. Other firms also prefer LinkedIn as most of their clients and potential networking channels seems to prefer LinkedIn. Twitter was also valued in all the firms what was surprising to the author is that most of the companies think that Facebook is not a very good social media channel for their firm. Only company B has their activity on Facebook and that is also very limited. When the author began the study he thought that as Facebook is the most used social media channel, firms would be more focused toward it. Company C thinks that Facebook has lost its credibility and does not feel that Facebook is a very effective social media channel at least not for their firm, he also added that to maintain Facebook their firm needs a person committed to maintaining which their firm cannot afford. Company A does not have a Facebook account although they are thinking about joining Facebook.

The content of social media posts are pictures, short messages, informative posts, videos, and blogs. Company A shares pictures, short messages of the events, they are not currently doing any blogging but they think blogging is useful and soon they might start doing it. Company B's contents are mostly Blogs, informative posts, and videos. They like to share if there are some new technologies introduced in their firm or something that they want their audience to know. Company C also share informative posts and short messages in social media and Company D's content type is pictures, videos, blogs and shared articles. The author thinks that the firms want to share as much information as they can through social media, the firms think that if the audience has a clear view and good understanding of their firm they might be more interested. According to (De vries, 2012) if consumers are provided with information they tend to think they know about the brand and they have a positive attitude toward the brand. Posting pictures and videos also seems a good way of communication the firms. Although some of the firms are using blogging but the realization of the importance of blogging is still increasing.

Jin et al. (2017) suggested that a strong and active presence in social media the increase of the chances for a startup to manage funds, increase the number of funds and also make a network for the potential investors. So the firms have to be very active in social media and also identify how much time and resources they are going to invest in social media. As the resources of the startups are limited so they need to utilize those resources properly. The author identified that the amount of time and resources invested in social media for the case firms are mostly similar, the firms generally do their activities on a weekly basis while the amount of time spent varies based on the event ongoing. The number of employees is limited to 1-2, none of the firms has a social media expert to maintain their social media, only the interviewee has some previous working experience on social media. So it is clear that the firms do not invest too much or not very committed toward social media. The author thinks a reason behind that is the lack of resources of the firms, as Company C thinks that if they want to be in Facebook than they would need one person just to maintain the activities which they don't think is wise. Company A wants to be more active and they know the importance of blogging but has not yet started, so clearly, a limitation of resources is one of the reasons behind lack of involvement in social media. While Company C thinks that their firm does not need too much social media activity as

they already have a stable market and because of the nature of their product which does not need a lot of promotion. So the nature of product and demand in the market is also a variable for the firms to invest in social media. Another factor is the size of the firms, all the case firms are a small and medium-size firm who have limited number of employees, because of the structure of their company they tend not to invest either a lot of time or people just for social media.

Because of the nature of social media, it is very difficult to say how much impact social media has on the firms. According to (Kim & Ko 2010) social media can have a significant impact on the reputation of the brand and also suggested that the firms who are not engaging on the social media as a part of their marketing strategy are missing out on a huge opportunity to reach the consumers. In this study, all the firms think that social media has impacted the visibility of their firm and their brand. Company A thinks that social media has increased its network, increased its brand awareness and increased the number of responses from their clients. Company B thinks social media reminds their audience about their firm and product while company C thinks they are widely known because of social media. According to Company D social media has impacted the visibility of their firm. So mostly the firms suggest that social media has impacted in increasing the visibility, creating brand awareness and better communication with their clients. Although all the firm think that their firms have some impact on social media but none of them can confirm that social media has a direct impact on their sales. The reason behind that maybe is that their focus of using social media is not selling their products rather their main motivation is increasing the awareness in social media.

To answer the question the challenges of using social media the author found that the main challenge most of the firms face is to be updated all the time. As company A thinks that their firm has to be frequently updated and the audience is demanding to be updated which is a very challenging task for them. Even though company B does not have a lot of activity in social media but they feel that their firm need to be active and updated in order to maintain social media. Company D feels the most challenging issue regarding social media for them is to manage time and post frequently. So for Company A, B and D the main problem is to be active frequently, post regularly and be updated. Because of the limitation of resources of the firms, it

is difficult for them to invest a lot of time and people to keep updated frequently. On the other hand company, C feels their main problem is to create good and neutral content with a very limited resource and be compatible in the market. They want to create content which does not offend anyone and at the same time, the contents should fulfill the company requirements which is challenging. Also, the budget for making content is low compared to the contents of big organizations which is also challenging. So according to Company D, the creation of the content is the main challenge for their firm. The author thinks that the challenges the firms are facing are because of the size and nature of the firms. As startups, most of the firms cannot afford to have a fulltime employee just to maintain social media. The impact of social media is still growing on the firms and the firms are yet to decide how much time and resources they should invest in social media.

According to DiStaso & McCorkindale (2013), firms should have a proper strategy for social media to get the full benefit out of it. But during the study author found that most firms does not have a certain strategy for social media. Firms are mostly reactive toward social media, they plan their activities based on the events they have. Company A's planning process is based on reacting to the situation but they feel that they should have a more structured planning process. Company B keep tracks on the ongoing in social media and they like to pre-post about upcoming events but like company A they do not have a specific plan. According to Company C their plan is an ongoing process as they like to decide their activity every week. Company D's strategy is quite similar to other firms as they also like to post according to the events and they do not have a specific strategy for social media but like Company A they also feel that they should have a proper long term strategy. So the planning process is mostly similar for all the firms, they all like to improvise on the situation and their strategy is mainly reactive. The author thinks that because of their lack of planning their outcome is not that significant and they should have a more structured way of planning to have the best outcome from social media.

The author wanted to know what the firms think about the future of social media as a business tool, as personally, the author thinks that social media has the potential of becoming a very important business tool in the future. The interviewee of company A thinks that the importance of social media is still increasing and the environment is

changing frequently so the companies have to be ready to adjust according to the situation. The interviewee of Company B thinks that the power of social media is still increasing and the companies have to learn how to use social media for their benefits. Company C interviewee also thinks that the future of social media as a business tool